January 2010
2 posts
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3 tags
December 2009
2 posts
Week Two: Sharon Van Etten
Photo by Dusdin Condren.
We’re back in the studio this week to record the second project of the 2010 Project Series. This time we’ve taken a softer turn—towards the sounds of Brooklyn neofolk songwriter Sharon Van Etten.
Sharon and her band drove down from New York last night, and, after some showers and coffee to wake them up, they’re up and ready, getting set to record....
In the studio with Strapping Fieldhands
If you spent any time reveling in the glory of the 90s’ post-punk, lo-fi sounds, you’ll certainly remember Philadelphia’s Strapping Fieldhands. As AMG puts it, the then-quintet was one of the most charming of the scene’s ramshackle-style bands, and made waves touring with contemporaries like Pavement and Guided By Voices before their late 90s hiatus. A decade later...
November 2009
3 posts
4 tags
WV Comments - The coming of the ice age: the death...
I appreciate this article on many points (See the BrokenBottleBoy article down below my comments). I know very few musicians who set out to be one in order to have a life of free booze. If anything, young kids entering the life romanticize the starving artist lifestyle (an equally unhealthy lifestyle, in the long run…especially when alcohol and drugs are part of the image). There is a great...
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October 2009
9 posts
4 tags
How to Actively Support the Music you Love – By...
[THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE FUTURE OF MUSIC COALITION’S WEBSITE. THANKS TO KRISTIN THOMSON AND CASEY RAE-HUNTER FOR THE INTRODUCTION AND THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABOUT SUCH IMPORTANT THINGS!]
Today’s post is by Brian McTear, co-founder of Philadelphia’s Weathervane Music Organization– a nonprofit community that works with independent musicians to support and...
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Danielson’s “Moment Soakers” Project Series Video...
Hey everybody! Today, we are very proud (and totally psyched!) to debut the fourth and final installment of 2009’s Project Series: Danielson’s “Moment Soakers.” In the last fifteen years, Danielson has earned a cult-like following for their experimental style and the unabashed celebration of life in their music. Ever evolving as a collaborative project between band leader Daniel Smith, his...
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Gushing about Tom Quinn/New Year Parade
If I haven’t said it enough already, Tom Quinn, the Philadelphia Filmmaker who wrote and directed The New Year Parade, is one helluva an awesome dude. Tom volunteered to shoot the Danielson Project Series Session that will release in less than a week (Oct 26, to be precise). And back to that film of his? Well, that film is probably about 75-90% of how we knew of his helluva goodness to start...
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Brian's presentation at Ignite Philly 4 video... →
My presentation was called “Active Music Supporters”. Super cool night of positive inspiration and motivation.
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Project Series 2009: Meet Danielson
Next Monday, October 26th, we’ll be premiering Danielson’s Weathervane Music Project, “Moment Soakers” on our Projects page! This is the last release of the 2009 season, and we’re very proud of this final installment.
It’s not often that a senior thesis turns into a music career, but for South Jersey’s Daniel Smith, that’s exactly how it all began. The eldest...
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Future of Music: day 3
Tuesday, day 3 of the Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Summit featured an excellent assortment of highlights in the AM. Daniel Ek of Spotify was interviewed by FMC Communications Coordinator Casey Rae-Hunter, an hour long conversation and open question session with Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi, Discord Records) and Wayne Kramer (MC5), a conversation between Radio Head Manager/Advisor...
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Future of Music: day 2
This was a great day.
I am going to geek out a little bit, here, folks, and possibly (no, DEFINITELY) neglect to talk about a lot of great things that were discussed. In my defense, I bet everyone in the room today at FMC Policy Summit has some artist or band that largely inspired their entrance into the music business. For me that was REM.
Bertis Downs, REM’s career long lawyer and...
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Future of Music: day 1
I remember seeing the film “Berkley in the 60s” (a documentary about the free speech movement at Berkley College in CA which preceded and led to the hippie movement), and thinking to myself, “Man, these kids are so intelligent! I was a complete idiot when I was their age!” Perhaps this comes to mind because the sheer level of intelligence that surrounds me here at the...
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The Free Bubble...
In this time when all musicians should be engaged in the struggle to define a future model for career sustainability, I can’t help but fear that the FREE business models, ubiquitously held to be the future of music, media and just about everything else, will be an embarrassing footnote in recent industry history. Worse yet, I fear musicians and artists themselves, the willing subjects they...
September 2009
5 posts
“HarperCollins Publishers announced Monday that 24-year-old Islip, NY resident...”
– Man’s Facebook Status Given Book Deal | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source (via kmaverick) (via meaghano) (via sinktoswim)
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WV Comments: Hypebot - The Music Industry Pays The...
This is a great article (thanks for passing it along, Katonah).
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2009/09/the-high-cost-of-going-negative.html#more
You can scroll all the way to the bottom to see my comments, or read it here, below:
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Excellent article.
The problem is that in the past it has been easy for artists, and the industry behind them, to...
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WV Comments: Kyle Bylin's article, "What Will It...
Check out Kyle Bylin’s recent article. Then see our comments below!
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You are onto something, here! But whatever “saves the industry” is not going to just happen on it’s own.
We need to educate and inspire music fans to care for their favorite artists in such a way that they WANT to support them financially. Whether that means buying music (in the...
All Hail the Hub and Spoke →
Some great points here.
I believe one point that may yet be left out of the conversation is that we think of music distribution to be entirely the thing of industry, and perhaps we need to envision, rather, developing quality communities instead. Is P2P a community? Yes, a huge one. Is P2P a quality community? No, because it doesn’t nurture it only leaches. I think our best way to counter...
August 2009
8 posts
4 tags
NEW BREED: WEATHERVANE MUSIC →
Check out this article I wrote to explain Weathervane Music to the readers of WorkbookProject.com. Click where it says, “read more” , then you have to scroll down to see the whole thing.
Portrait of the Artist as a Digital Native →
THis is a great article. Please read it, then my comments below!
- Brian
Thank you so much for all the above points. Thanks also to Dean Kay for highlighting this blog post, because nothing is more frustrating than the conventional perspective that all’s well and good, now that we have the internet and don’t NEED industry anymore. I think that would be true if we as a society appreciated...
BC Camplight's "Your Daddy Is A Little Girl" Up...
The next installment of the 2009 Weathervane Music Project Series is now up! After premiering the video to a packed room at their show at Johnny Brenda’s Friday night, we’re proud to officially release BC Camplight’s “Your Daddy Is A Little Girl,” written by Brian Christinzio and produced by Brian McTear. The song is available as a FREE download at the Projects...
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@OTMG: What Will Record Labels Look Like in the... →
This is a great article. Scroll down after you read it to see my comments (might be as long as the article..sorry)!
- Brian
Behind the music: The real reason why the major... →
B.C. Camplight's Weathervane Project coming in one...
It’s been a few months since we released our first two projects with East Hundred and Sunset, but next Monday, August 24, comes the next installment of our 2009 Project Series: B.C. Camplight’s “Your Daddy Is A Little Girl.”
B.C. Camplight has long been one of Philadelphia’s most beloved indie artists, and for good reason. Since releasing his 2005 debut,...
DIY Shouldn't Mean Do it ALL Yourself →
Interesting interview with an important point! We can’t ask artists to do everything for themselves - everyone needs a little help from someone. Neither extreme is good.
Nancy Sinatra Op-Ed New York Times Aug 3 →
“WHEN I hear great American standards on the radio, I think of all the songwriters, artists and musicians whom my father, brother and I have worked with over the years. It reminds me that every recording has two parts, the composition and the performance. It also reminds me how many wonderful artists and musicians have not been paid fairly for their work.
Songwriters and publishers are paid...
July 2009
8 posts
MXP4 - Engaging Gimmick Or Pointless New Format? →
hypebot:
The music industry is in a desperate search for new ways to re-engage fans to the point where they are willing to hit the buy button. Most recently we learned that Apple is exploring a new …
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Brian McTear, speaking at DIY Days THIS SATURDAY...
If you are in the Philadelphia area this weekend (Saturday August 1), don’t miss DIY Days. The Keynote Speaker is Douglas Rushkoff. Brian McTear will also be part of a round table discussion as well (see below):
12:00pm-12:40pm* Black Box Theatre : UArts
Terra Building 17th Floor 211 South Broad Street Philadelphia, PA
ROUNDTABLE: NEW MODELS IN MUSIC The music industry will never...
Pew Report: Music 10 years after Napster →
Musicians Find New Backers as Labels Lose Power -... →
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East Hundred named WXPN's July Artist to Watch →
East Hundred has been named WXPN’s July Artist to Watch! Congratulations to Beril, Will, Brooke, Susan and David - they deserve it!
June 2009
5 posts
Post Launch Party Thanks!
Thanks to everyone who made it out last night to KFN! We had a great night! Very special thanks to The Armchairs and Papertrigger…what an amazing bill, these two bands together!…and to Kung Fu Necktie itself, as well. They were super accommodating. What a perfect place for the event!
If you weren’t able to make it but feel like you’d want to make a donation, you can go to...
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Weathervane Launch Party TONIGHT!
We’d love to see you out tonight at Kung Fu Necktie, in Fishtown (Front and Thompson Sts). The night begins at 9pm with some video screening, music listening and then good old live music from the Armchairs and Papertrigger.
Tonight’s a benefit (admission is $10), so please bring lots of friends! We’ve recently added up the costs we’ve incurred so far and it’s off the...
The Weathervane Music Project Series debuts TODAY...
Download the free MP3 now on the new Projects page (just above and to the left)!
There, you can watch the videos of the session with {{{SUNSET}}}. Profiles of both the band and session producer Quentin Stoltzfus were shot masterfully by DP Andrew David Watson, with some help from co-producer Devin Greenwood. (Read more about SUNSET & their music here.)
There’s a lot coming...
SUNSET Weathervane Project to be debuted Thursday!
Hello everybody!
We are very excited to announce that THIS Thursday, June 11, we will debut the first of the Weathervane Music Project Series with Austin-based band, SUNSET. (Here’s Bill, the frontman of the group, hard at work recording the song back in April at Miner Street Studios.)
Along with the release of their song, “Fishtown,” we’ll debut video from their...
Official Weathervane Music Launch Party - 6/25 at...
Hi, everyone!
It was a great weekend here at Weathervane, and things are really starting to get busy! On Friday we had an incredible evening with Sunset and Philebrity at Fishtown’s 2424 Studios. The space was beautiful and the band took full advantage of it, and we got to reveal a sneak peak of the first Weathervane Project Series to an incredible response. We can’t wait to show it to everybody!...
May 2009
9 posts
6 tags
Philebrity and Weathervane Event this Friday May...
Philadelphia, We can’t wait! This a free event, but you need to email IHOPEIWIN@philebrity.com.
Indie labels are on the rise, and the proof is... →
“It was an impressive accomplishment, if only an intriguing first step in a new...”
– Radiohead reinvents itself — an excerpt from ‘Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music’ | Turn It Up - A guided tour through the worlds of pop, rock and rap
An excerpt from an intriguing book - I wasn’t too sure about this until I got to this last paragraph...
Performance Rights Act
naclaq:
Dear Recording Academy Member: In February, I told our worldwide GRAMMY telecast audience about our quest for a performance right for artists whose music is broadcast on AM/FM radio. We are at a critical moment in this pursuit, and now is the time to act. A vote in the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is imminent, so your representative needs to hear from you today or tomorrow (May 11 or...
Why Tech Pundits Should Just Shut Up About The... →
Future of Music: Our Favorite Expert Witnesses! →
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Daniel Smith, Ben and Vesper, Sufjan Stevens...
This week Amy and I were asked to record a project for my good friend Daniel Smith. (Daniel is a great supporter of all things Weathervane!) This week he was supposed to produce a recording at his home studio in NJ for the group, Ben and Vesper, but ended up with a scheduling conflict because his own band, Danielson, had a show in Los Angeles.
That’s where Amy and I came in. We tracked...
Andrew David Watson
If you’ve taken a look at the photos we’ve posted from the recording sessions with East Hundred and {{{SUNSET}}}, you’ve seen this guy behind the HD video camera. The Director of Photography for the Weathervane Project Series, Andrew David Watson is a Philadelphia native and Multimedia Producer who’s shot for The Independent Film Channel and NBC, and whose work has been...